—————————————–

This Memorial Day is day of National Disgrace for the corrupt USA’s treatment of its own war veterans and for this nation’s phony wars on the people of the world.The so-called “GOP Savior” Gary Sinise should stop insulting the veterans with his pretense of concern for them, especially as many suffer from unlawful assaults & mistreatment by the thugs of the government of the United States of America (i.e.: the fbi/cia assassins). See my reports on this subject as follows:

The intel services (fbi/cia) force suicide on some veterans with the full knowledge of VA. Other veterans prefer death to a padded cell or jail. In any event , Gary Sinise, stop the charade that USA cares for and has patience with its veterans. You are an actor, Gary, now playing politician on the backs of injured and killed veterans. Your silly ads are sadly laughable to all knowledgeable vets.

http://www.sosbeevfbi….com/geralsosbeearmyf.html

http://sosbeevfbi.ning.com/forum/topics/psychoelectronic-weapon

[QUESTIONS! geral sosbee (956)371-5210]

Actor Gary Sinise floated as possible GOP savior
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/21/sinise.military/art.gary.sinise.jpg caption="GOP strategist Nicole Wallace names Sinise and others as possible GOP saviors."] WASHINGTON (CNN) — Nicolle Wallace, a top adviser to George W.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/University-of-Texas–fbi-by-GERAL-SOSBEE-091112-100.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/US-Army-Lies-To-Our-Young-by-GERAL-SOSBEE-080929-134.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/USA-Military-Universal-Su-by-GERAL-SOSBEE-080915-75.html

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part4-worldinabo.html

Skin disease in Gulf war veterans
E.M. HIGGINS, K. ISMAIL1, K. KANT1, K. HARMAN, J. MELLERIO, A.W.P. DU VIVIER and S. WESSELY1
From the Dermatology Department, King’s College Hospital, London, and 1 Gulf War Illness Research Unit, Guy’s, King’s & St Thomas’ Medical School, London, UK

Received 27 February 2002 and in revised form 13 June 2002

Summary
Top
Summary
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Appendix 1
References

Background: Gulf war veterans report more symptomatic ill-health than other military controls, and skin disease is one of the most frequent reasons for military personnel to seek medical care.

Aim: To compare the nature and prevalence of skin disease in UK Gulf veterans with non-Gulf veterans, and to assess whether skin disease is associated with disability.

Design: Prospective case comparison study.

Methods: Disabled (n=111) and non-disabled (n=98) Gulf veterans and disabled non-Gulf veterans (n=133) were randomly selected from representative cohorts of those who served in the Gulf conflict 1990–1991, UN Bosnia Peacekeeping Force 1992–1997, or veterans in active service between 1990–91, but not deployed to the Gulf. Disability was defined as reduced physical functioning as measured by the Short Form 36 [score <72.2]. All subjects recruited were examined by a dermatologist, blind to the military and health status of the veteran.

Results: The prevalences of skin disease in disabled Gulf, non-disabled Gulf and disabled non-Gulf veterans were 47.7, 36.7, and 42.8% respectively. Seborrhoeic dermatitis was twice as common as expected in the Gulf veterans (both disabled and non-disabled).

Discussion: Skin disease does not appear to be contributing to ill health in Gulf war veterans, with the exception of an unexplained two-fold increase in seborrhoeic dermatitis.

Introduction
Top
Summary
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Appendix 1
References

Gulf war veterans report more symptomatic ill health than other military controls.1–3 Symptoms reported are multi-system and non-specific, and as yet no medical explanation or cause(s) has been identified. Previous studies have also shown that skin disease is one of the most frequent reasons for military personnel to seek medical care.4,5 Rash was one of the most common symptoms reported by United States (US) registries of Gulf veterans6,7 and in studies comparing Gulf veterans with non-Gulf veterans.8 Dermatitis was the third most common health condition (21%) reported by Gulf veterans and reported twice as often than in Bosnia (13.7%) and Era veterans (12%).1 The limitation of these studies was that they used self-reported measures. To date, there has not been a study that has used clinician diagnosis of dermatological conditions. In this study, we investigated first, whether ill health in Gulf veterans was associated with skin disease and second, whether there was a difference in skin disease between Gulf veterans and non-Gulf veterans who reported ill health.

Methods
Top
Summary
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Appendix 1
References

Design
The study population was a sample from Stage 2 of a two-stage cohort study of three UK military populations,9 the study design being shown schematically in Appendix 1. Stage 1 was a random sample of veterans of the Gulf conflict (1990–1991) (n=5046), veterans of the Bosnia Peace-Keeping mission (1992–1997) (n=3450) and veterans in active service 1990–1991 who were not deployed to the Gulf (‘Era’ veterans) (n=4248). These veterans were sent postal questionnaires, and the details of recruitment, tracing, response rates and baseline levels of ill-health in Stage 1 have been reported elsewhere.1 In stage 2, four samples were randomly selected based on health status measured at Stage 1. Ill-health was defined as impaired physical functioning using the Short Form 36 Physical functioning measure (SF-36PF)10 at a cut-off of 30%.6

While skin disease is common in the general population,19 our study has confirmed that cutaneous disease is rather more prevalent in military veterans, but for the most part there appears to be no marked difference between the different cohorts studied. However, it is interesting that there was a trend for more skin problems to be seen in disabled Gulf than in the non-disabled Gulf, but not more than the disabled non-Gulf veterans. When all the miscellaneous benign conditions are grouped together, they are significantly more frequent in the disabled Gulf cohort. This cohort tended to be older and less likely still to be serving in the Armed Forces, and this may in part explain the increased skin disease in this group.

The most striking finding was the increase in seborrhoeic dermatitis in Gulf veterans. Seborrhoeic dermatitis was more common amongst veterans who served in the Gulf (17/209 (8.1%) vs. 3/133 (2.3%) in the non-Gulf cohort), irrespective of disability status. The prevalence of seborrhoeic dermatitis in the general population is estimated to be around 3%,20 so the prevalence of this condition in the Gulf sample is twice as high as expected. Although we do not have adjusted prevalences for a non-Gulf military group, this suggests that there may have been an effect of serving in the Gulf itself, rather than an effect associated with disability within the Gulf cohort. This ‘Gulf effect’ has not been reported previously. The explanation for the apparent increase in seborrhoeic dermatitis is not clear, and could be due to chance. However, it is noteworthy that seborrhoeic dermatitis is more common in patients with immune dysfunction20and there is some evidence that patients who served in the Gulf have identifiable immunological abnormalities.21 Further studies to measure immune dysfunction in Gulf veterans, with and without seborrhoeic dermatitis, will be needed to investigate the plausibility of this hypothesis more fully.

In conclusion, although a significant number of Gulf war veterans report on-going ill-health, including skin symptoms,2,5 there is little evidence from this study that dermatological disease is contributory to their perception of ill-health.

Appendix 1
Top
Summary
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Appendix 1
References

View larger version (19K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
Study design9

Notes

Address correspondence to Dr E.M. Higgins, Dermatology Department, King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS. e-mail: elisabeth.higgins@kcl.ac.uk

References
Top
Summary
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Appendix 1
References

1. Unwin C, Blatchley N, Coker W, et al. Health of UK servicemen who served in the Persian Gulf war. Lancet1999; 353:169–78.[Web of Science][Medline]

2. Coker WJ, Bhatt BM, Blatchley NF, Graham JT. Clinical findings for the first 1000 Gulf war veterans in the Ministry of Defence’s medical assessment programme. Br Med J1999; 318:290–4.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

3. Ismail K, Everitt B, Blatchley N, Hull L, et al. Is there a Gulf war syndrome? Lancet1999; 3453:179–82.

4. Selvaag E. Skin disease in military personnel. Mil Med2000; 165:193–4.[Web of Science][Medline]

5. Murphy FM, Kamg H, Dalager NA, Lee KY, et al. The health status of Gulf war veterans: lessons learned from the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Registry. Mil Med1999; 164:327–31.[Web of Science][Medline]

6. Joseph SC. A comprehensive clinical evaluation of 20 000 Persian Gulf war veterans. Mil Med1997; 162:149–55.[Web of Science][Medline]

7. Roy MJ, Koslowe PA, Kroenke K, Magruder C. Signs, symptoms and ill-defined conditions in Persian Gulf war veterans: findings from the Comprehensive Clinical Evaluation Programme. Psychosom Med1998; 60:669–70.[Free Full Text]

8. Gray G, Smith T, Knoke J, Heller J. The post war hospitalization experience of Gulf war veterans possibly exposed to chemical munitions destruction at Khamisiyah, Iraq. Am J Epidemiol1999; 150:532–40.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

9. Ismail K, Davies K, Brugha T, David A, et al. The mental health of United Kingdom Gulf war veterans: a two phase cohort study. Br Med J2002; in press.

10. Ware JJ, Sherbourne C. The MOS 36-item short-form survey (SF-36); conceptual framework and item selection. Med Care1992; 30:473–83.[Web of Science][Medline]

11. Higgins EM. Alcohol, smoking and psoriasis. Clin Exp Dermatol2000; 25:107–10.[Web of Science][Medline]

12. Dunn G. Statistics in Psychiatry. London, Arnold, 2000.

13. Gee MR. Dermatologic disease: twenty-two year experience at the USAF Aeromedical Consultation Service and review of other military and civilian experiences. Aviation Space Environ Med2000; 71:230–7.[Medline]

14. Sulzberger MB. Impact of skin diseases on military operations. Arch Dermatol1969; 100:702.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

15. Croft AM, Hoad NA, Dale RF. Hospitalization of British troops during Operation Joint endeavor (Bosnia). Mil Med1999; 164:460–5.[Web of Science][Medline]

16. Hepburn NC. Dermatological problems in British troops during the Gulf war. Br J Dermatol1992; 126:200–1.[Web of Science][Medline]

17. Winfield DA. Dermatological conditions in winter in Primary Health Care on Operation Resolute (Bosnia). J Roy Army Med Corps1997; 143:31–4.

18. Gray GC, Smith TC, Kang HK, Knoke JD. Are Gulf war veterans suffering war-related illnesses? Federal and civilian hospitalizations examined, June 1991 to December 1994. Am J Epidemiol1994; 151:63–71.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

19. Rea JN, Newhouse ML, Halil T. Skin disease in Lambeth. Br J Prev Soc Med1976; 30:107–14.[Web of Science][Medline]

20. Schechtman RC, Midgeley G, Hay RJ. HIV disease and malassezia yeasts: a quantitative study of patients presenting with seborrhoeic dermatitis. Br J Dermatol1997; 136:138–9.[Web of Science][Medline]

21. Zhang Q, Zhou XD, Denny T, Ottenweller JE, et al. Changes in immune parameters seen in Gulf war veterans but not civilians with chronic fatigue syndrome. Clin Diagnost Lab Immunol1999; 6:6–13.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What’s this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

M. Hotopf and S. Wessely
Can epidemiology clear the fog of war? Lessons from the 1990-91 Gulf War
Int. J. Epidemiol., August 1, 2005; 34(4): 791 – 800.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

It is the only thing that has ever made any sense for me. I never was into mysterious unknown things. There is alaways a reaction for every action. I like to see the world with my simple colored glasses on. I was a member of NMCB 40 and have stuggled with all the symptoms of GWI which are idenitical to Vibration Syndrome. Whole body Vibration syndrome is the worst of the bunch. Females are at greater risk. It has took me 17+ years of research to connect these dots. The VA has been nothing but outstanding. I commend the VA for there outstanding professionalism. But we all have room to improve.

W

We need to get Multiple Chemical Sensitivity as a presumptive as well. What do ya’ll think? Denise?

We don’t have to continue suffering and can have a better quality of life and help each other out, that is what this is all about.

Don’t ever give up.

This article was written by me except the last part where the things numbered 1-4 was added.

Again with the “new culture change” and new directive letters to the raters on GWI it might be beneficial to read and see if you want to contact your service officer or a service officer or go it alone and ask for your claim to be reevaluated….The VA is ding pretty good on their site posting news on what they are doing after all the PR and AP release this past end of Feb!
Let’s hope it helps!